


Lavender's Poor Prediction

by chaosdaemon



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: #notliketheothergirls, But Poorly, F/M, lavender does divination, making lavender less ditzy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:33:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23829910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaosdaemon/pseuds/chaosdaemon
Summary: Lavender feels guilty that she and Ron are back together while Hermione is still single, so she takes out her crystal ball to try to rectify the situation.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy, Lavender Brown/Ron Weasley
Comments: 10
Kudos: 134





	Lavender's Poor Prediction

**Author's Note:**

> I always see negative depictions of Lavender in Dramione fanfiction and I wanted to reverse this trend. Despite her personality contrast with Hermione, I think it’s unfair to treat her so poorly, since she does fight in the last battle and risk her life. I dislike tropes of women bashing other women for their interest in more stereotypically girly activities, and for chasing the same men, and I see that a lot with Lavender, so here’s my attempt to combat that.
> 
> Long-time lurker, first time writer :)

Lavender was never really sure why she and Ron got back together. It was a year after the war had ended and she had come into Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, looking to distract herself from the stresses of her new job (as a financial divinator at Gringotts) when she had seen Ron restocking the shelves. He had jumped at the sight of her. She was used to this reaction; her face, which still had scars from Greyback’s attack during the last battle, had never fully healed. Her right profile was still quite beautiful, but her left side was somewhat shocking. Still, people got used to it.

Lavender was different from the silly girl she’d been at Hogwarts- less emotional, less garish, and less inclined to give Ron hideous gold jewelry for his birthday. Her tastes and self-presentation had become much more mature and refined in the year since her attack. She hadn’t expected to see Ron at Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, and when he invited her to join him on his lunch break, she accepted with an air of apprehension. She had heard rumors that Ron and Hermione had gotten together after the war, and she harbored no desire to come between them. However, lunch had come and gone without mention of Hermione, and when Lavender tentatively brought up the topic, asking Ron as to her whereabouts, Ron admitted that he and Hermione had broken up amicably after several months of a long distance relationship. She had gone to Hogwarts to finish her final year and he had stayed in London to work at the joke shop; the distance had hurried their relationship along to its end. It turned out, despite their many years spent pining for one another, when all was said and done, Hermione and Ron were terribly matched. Both lacked the ability to comfortably express their feelings, especially to one another, and the relationship had lacked passion and intensity as a result. Lavender, of course, had never had this problem, and perhaps had the opposite problem of being unable to contain her feelings.

Now, however, several years older and wiser, Lavender embarked on a new relationship with Ron when he owled her the week following their impromptu lunch in Diagon Alley. It turned out that they were exceptionally well-matched, a fact that might have come out in their first relationship had they spent more time talking and less time snogging. Hermione did not begrudge them their happiness in the slightest. She knew that she and Ron were better off as friends, and expressed this sentiment to Lavender when they all caught up in the Leaky Cauldron one night after work. However, this didn’t stop Lavender from feeling slightly guilty around Hermione, as though she had done something wrong in dating Ron again. It was partly this guilt that caused her to act.

Lavender had offered to set Hermione up with several intelligent, single men that she knew, mostly bankers and curse breakers within Gringotts, where she worked, but Hermione politely declined, citing her immense workload at her job at the Department of Regulation of Magical Creatures. Lavender had also offered to set Hermione up with several of the women she knew, but Hermione had declined that as well. Hermione had showed up to Ron's last birthday party alone, a fifth wheel, as Harry and Ginny had come too. Hermione didn't seem to mind this, but Lavender couldn't help but feel a little sorry for her. Hermione had shown up to countless Ministry events, countless post-war balls, galas, and fundraisers alone. Lavender and Hermione were getting on quite well these days, much better than they did at Hogwarts, and Lavender couldn't understand why Hermione was so nonplussed about her non-existent love life.

Finally, after Hermione had come alone to Lavender and Ron’s wedding alone, Lavender had had enough. It was time to take matters into her own hands, she decided. And so, one day, when nobody was home, Lavender took out her crystal ball. Her experience and ability in divination had grown immensely since starting her job at Gringotts, and, after a heated discussion over Butterbeers with Hermione one Friday at lunch, had agreed that Professor Trelawney may have been somewhat of a fraud.

 _I’ll just take a peak and see if I can help,_ thought Lavender. It was partly curiosity and partly a desire to help Hermione that Lavender felt as she took her crystal ball gingerly off the shelf and placed it on the rug near the fire. She readied herself to read the crystal ball and started her incantation.

“Crystal ball, crystal ball  
tell me what you see.  
Hermione’s future love life  
Please show it to me.”

It was a simple incantation, much simpler than what she did regularly at work, and as expected, the crystal ball began to smoke. Lavender saw a woman, clearly Hermione, sitting in an office chair and bent over a desk, writing something down. Another poof of smoke and the figure of a man appeared, walking into her office. He was holding what looked like two broomsticks. The smoke version of Hermione looked up from her desk and quickly stood up to embrace the male figure. The figure in the smoke was tall and thin, with a pointy face and slicked back hair. As they embraced, the crystal ball clouded up and the scene went blank.

 _Ah ha!_ thought Lavender. _So, she’s already seeing someone. Someone she works with, likely, judging by the office. And someone’s who’s a quidditch player._ It was strange, though, that Hermione hadn’t confessed this yet. Her friends had made it clear they were excited to meet whoever she might date. _It must be someone she’s hesitant to introduce to us, she thought. Maybe someone from our past._

But Lavender couldn’t think of anyone Hermione worked with that fit this description. _I’ll have to do a little more sleuthing,_ thought Lavender. Though she had matured quite a lot, she had never really gotten over her teenage penchant for nosiness, especially where romance was concerned. _I’ll just meet her early in her office and see if I see anyone,_ she thought. Since they both worked in Diagon Alley, they had lunch together quite frequently. Luckily, they were having lunch together just the next day.

* * *

As Lavender waited outside Hermione’s office, she couldn’t help but look around for anyone who resembled the man in her prediction. Tall, lean, and pointy-faced. But no one appeared.

“You’re early, it’s only 11:30,” Hermione’s secretary informed her when Lavender arrived at the Ministry the next day. “She’s in there with Cormac, they’ll be out at twelve for lunch.” Lavender remembered the name Cormac from Hogwarts, but she couldn’t remember what he looked like or who he was. She took out her phone to text Ron on her new spellphone.

**Lavender:** Do you remember a Cormac from Hogwarts? **  
**Ron:**** Yeah, Cormac McLaggen. Complete tosser. He filled in for me as Keeper sixth year, remember? Hit Harry with the beater’s bat. Why? **  
**Lavender:**** I’m getting lunch with Hermione and she’s in a meeting with him.  
**Ron** : Oh yeah, he works at the ministry. They went to one of Slughorn’s parties together sixth year. Apparently he tried to chew her face off. **  
**Lavender:**** Was this when you and I were dating ;)  
**Ron** : That was so long ago, I barely remember :)

_Well,_ thought Lavender, putting her phone away. _This definitely fits. Hermione’s embarrassed because of what happened in sixth year… that’s why she doesn’t want to introduce us, she knows Ron and Harry hate him! Maybe she’s embarrassed about all this because it’s such a repeat of the drama back then. And he’s a quidditch player, too! It’s definitely him, it’s definitely him! Ooooh, I can’t wait to tell Ron. I wonder if she’ll admit it at lunch today?_

She strained her ears to see if she could hear anything coming from the office, but it was nearly silent. She waited like this quietly for several more minutes before the door burst open and out came someone Lavender presumed was Cormac McLaggen. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and looked quite grumpy. Cormac completely ignored Lavender as he stormed out of the office. Hermione poked her head out, ignoring the commotion Cormac was making.

“Hi Lavender,” said Hermione. “Ready for lunch?”

* * *

Despite her previous distaste for the subject, Hermione was excited to talk to Lavender about her divination work at Gringotts. Lavender had recently been assigned to predict the consequences of new legislation that one of Hermione’s colleagues had worked on. It was a complex project, one that required state-of-the-art prediction methods, some of which Lavender had developed herself. They spent the first half of lunch discussing the project and the work Lavender had done; Hermione rather hoped that Lavender’s predictions were accurate, as it so happened that Lavender predicted her department would be in good standing for the coming year. Lavender entertained Hermione’s persistent questioning for half an hour, but finally managed to change the subject just as the two called for the check.

“Enough about me,” said Lavender. “How are you doing? What’s going on in your life?”

“Not much,” said Hermione, “I started this new project at work…” Lavender cut her off, determined to steer the conversation in a more personal direction.

“Is there anything new in your love life?” she said bluntly. “Is there something you want to tell me… maybe about someone you’re dating? Someone asking you out recently? Something along those lines?”

Hermione looked momentarily shocked, then composed herself. “You know Lavender, I know I shouldn’t be surprised at this, but you really are quite a talented seer.”

“I know,“ Lavender grinned. “So tell me about Cormac.”

“Cormac!?” Hermione looked confused, and then laughed. “McLaggen? What about him?”

“Well, when did you start dating him?” Lavender asked eagerly. “What was he doing in the office earlier? How come you haven’t told me or Ron, or Harry or Ginny for that matter? You know we would only support you-”

“I’m definitely not dating Cormac,” Hermione said, cutting Lavender off. “I tried that once sixth year and never again. Don’t you remember? Not that, you know, he hasn’t tried to ask me out, well, somewhat recently. There’s no chance in hell I’d agree to date him. Did you know he only got his position because his uncle’s well connected? Completely incompetent. You saw him storm out of my office earlier? He’s angry because one of his projects was recently axed, and he’s been coming around to see if I had any information about the whole affair. He thinks my boss had something to do with it, but I don’t know much about it. Goodness knows I wouldn’t tell him if I did. But why on earth did you think I was dating him?”

Lavender told her about the crystal ball and what she had seen. She thought she saw a smirk flit across Hermione’s face, but perhaps she had imagined it. Hermione continued to deny Lavender’s suspicions.

“I’m definitely not dating McLaggen and I have no interest in him whatsoever,” she stated as she fished around her bag for some sickles for tip. Lavender checked her own bag and realized she had forgotten her spellphone in Hermione’s office.

“Let’s walk back together and you can pick it up, if you have time,” Hermione told her. “I have a meeting at one a clock, but if we go quickly we can probably just make it with time to spare.”

On the walk back to the Ministry, Lavender thought through her prediction. What had gone wrong? Lavender was so certain of her prediction, so sure, of what she’d seen in the crystal ball, and yet Hermione wouldn’t even entertain the idea of dating McLaggen. She was so stubborn, Hermione was. She always had been.

 _Hermione isn’t really good with matters of the heart,_ she thought. _I’ll just have to keep trying to convince her about Cormac._ They were silent until they reached the office, and Hermione closed the door behind them as Lavender looked around for her missing phone. She found it laying beneath a chair, a text from Ron reminding her of dinner at the Burrow that night. Once her phone was safely in her bag, she turned to Hermione to make one last plea.

“Hermione, could you just give him a chance? Maybe you don’t know what you’re missing, what you guys could be like together. Maybe he’s changed. And anyway, you said it yourself, I’m a wonderful seer. How could I get something like this so hopelessly wrong? I know you trust my abilities, so why not on this matter? I want the best for you, and I want you to be happy. Why not just see if you’re compatible?”

Hermione paused and stared at Lavender. She opened her mouth to speak.

“Lavender, I’m… well…”

There was a knock on the door. Draco Malfoy poked his head in, looked around, and saw Lavender.

“Hello Brown,” he said. “Are you joining me and Granger for our one-o-clock?”

“No, no, I must be going,” said Lavender hurriedly. She gathered up her things and made her way towards the door before turning back to face Hermione, who was looking down at her feet.

“Just… think about what I said, Hermione. I’ve never been wrong before. I’ll see you at Molly’s birthday dinner tonight, right? Maybe I’ll have the chance to run through my tea leaves and look again. I’ll update you then… I’ve never been wrong before...”

On her way out the door, she paused briefly, nodding once at Malfoy, before shutting the door behind her.

“What was that all about?” Draco asked, swooping in to kiss Hermione. She let out a laugh as he kissed her on the cheek, hugging him back with enthusiasm.

“Well,” said Hermione, “Lavender has somehow gotten it in her head that McLaggen and I are secretly dating, or are meant to be together, or some other bollocks like that. Apparently she saw me in a crystal ball embracing a tall, pointy-faced man in my office. And she saw McLaggen coming out of a meeting here earlier today, so...”

Draco smirked. “Load of tosh, divination is,” he said. “You can never really trust what you see in a crystal ball.”

“I feel bad,” confessed Hermione. “She seemed so certain about her prediction, but I can tell she’s starting to doubt herself. She’s never had trouble with divination before, I mean, it’s her livelihood. She’s a professional. This was really starting to bother her.”

“She looked right at me when she left,” said Draco. “She’ll figure it out, eventually.”

Hermione laughed. “She’ll figure it out tonight. You’re coming to Molly’s birthday dinner, right? I told Molly I’d be bringing someone. Lavender will be there, and she’ll realize then.”

“I guess she will,” said Draco, laughing, taking Hermione in his arms and kissing her on the nose.

* * *

Lavender left work early that day, eager to get to her tea leaves. She put two pots of steaming hot water in the kettle, took out her leaves, and began swirling them around in the boiling water, waiting for something to appear. Again, the same lean figure of a man appeared. She swirled harder, annoyed. Wait, was that a dragon? No, it couldn’t be. Perhaps it was a figment of her imagination. Perhaps she was out of practice; after all, they didn’t use tea leaves regularly at her job; maybe she needed to brush up on her skills and take a refresher course. Maybe Hermione was right after all, and the whole subject of divination was a load of tosh. Sometimes, when work was especially tough and Lavender was stressed, she couldn’t help but ruminate on these kinds of negative thought patterns.

 _No,_ thought Lavender, recognizing where her mind was going. _Divination is real. That’s why Gringotts hires me to predict the ups and downs of the market. If it wasn’t useful, they’d fire me. They must gain some benefit from my work. And I got a raise a few months ago, they must be happy. There must be something I’m missing, maybe something about Hermione. Something obvious. Something that would change the circumstances of my prediction._

Annoyed, she drained the kettle and put the tea leaves away on the top shelf of her divination closet. These damn tea leaves were going to make her late for Molly’s party, where she’d see Hermione. Maybe she'd mention Cormac again and see how Hermione reacted. Molly was sure to badger Hermione about the state of her love life. Perhaps she'd uncover something new.


End file.
